I'm curious if there are system out there fitting these loose criteria:
* Fantasy or fantasy-adjacent
* Setting neutral or setting agnostic
* Important not based on the assumption or premise that starting characters will be itinerant "adventurers"
* On the slightly crunchier side
* Flexible in terms of campaign setup/style
The only systems that I can think of that truly fit these are #GURPS, #Reign and, to an extent, #BurningWheel , but I'm surely overlooking some gems.
@auguryignored Let's see -- dipping into the box. The challenge here is I _far_ prefer games that aren't particularly crunchy in the way it's classically thought of:
Sanction: I would possibly describe this as the indie games equivalent of the modular GURPS or Hero Equivalent. It's a set of straightforward, flexible mechanics, which can be attached to your own setting information. So completely generic in that sense. There are multiple examples of using it in game design, including the Dee Sanction.
I actually have a copy of the core mechanics in hardback, which is a lovely little red 6x9 from which you could build pretty much anything you wanted.
(cont)
Ironsworn: Depending on what you consider "setting neutral," it's very likely that #Ironsworn is perfectly capable of doing all the stuff that you're looking for.
The mechanics are just crunchy enough to give you something to grab onto in terms of traits that make a difference and represent things that you can do better than others who don't have them, no 80 pages of tables to look stuff up on.
The move system is not necessarily intuitive to a lot of people when they start playing. But it's really the core of understanding how the engine runs.
The fiction goes first, and then you think about what sort of move the fiction describes. When you can get your head wrapped around that, you're in good shape.
Free or low-cost third-party supplements on Itch.io mean that you can have a hack that effectively does D&D-style integration, or Ars Magica out of the box. It has a disturbingly good ecosystem.
Combine it with #Starforged and/or Sundered Isles, the latter maybe more than the former, and you can cover a really vast swath of potential fantasy and fantasy-adjacent settings.
And no, you aren't assumed to be itinerant adventurers. There's plenty of stuff to do around your home village if that's what you want to focus on. That's up to you.
https://www.ironswornrpg.com/products-ironsworn
(cont)
Tiny Dungeon: Weirdly enough, this wouldn't be one of the games that I thought of off the top of my head usually, but Tiny Dungeon actually does fulfill the bulk of your needs. It's definitely fantasy.
There are a number of fantasy setups given in the core book, not all of which require you to be an itinerant adventurer. There is a little bit of crunch. But nothing particularly onerous in my opinion. A little crunchier than I would necessarily expect out of something called Tiny, but not bad.
Quite flexible indeed in terms of setup.
Not only that, it is part of an entire series of games with the Tiny moniker, which have very similar mechanics. I'm particularly fond of Tiny Frontiers, which is their science fiction/Traveller wannabe. Definitely worth looking at.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/230298/tiny-dungeon-second-edition
(cont)
Fantasy World: I'm going to cap off this collection of suggestions with a game that I almost never see getting referred to and find it a complete and total shame.
Fantasy World is, of course, a fantasy game, but it doesn't force a specific type or style of fantasy story. Instead, it offers a more flexible, D&D-like setting rooted in classic Northern European fantasy RPG traditions.
You have four different setups of adventuring party/group that you are a part of, and only two of the four are focused on travel. The other two are more interested in staying in their own backyard.
Setting up your party and why you stay together reminds me fairly heavily of Blades in the Dark and thinking about why your gang exists. This is a good thing.
Mechanically, it's somewhere between the FitD and the PbtA spaces, leaning more toward the latter. But that means there's plenty of crunch to go around if that's what you want.
The text is kind enough to actually talk about ways that you can hack it to change what kind of campaign setup or style you want, both mechanically and narratively.
It's a terrible shame that when it comes to fantasy PBTA games, Dungeon World seems to suck the oxygen out of the room when Fantasy World is just a far superior product.
@auguryignored One of the ironies of assembling this list is I realized that about half of the games on it you can have for free, and the others are pretty low cost compared to most of the competitors on the market.
I don't feel bad about that. I think we should take that into account when we recommend games to people, especially people we hope to get into playing more games.
@lextenebris Awesome, I'm definitely gonna check some of this stuff out. I'm very familiar with Ironsworn too, and love it - it's one of my go to's both for solo play and for right-into-it group play. It's a massively impressive system.
What 3rd party indie expansions are you particular fond of? I have a bunch of the stuff from Ironsmith myself, but I'm not too familiar with other creators there, sadly
@auguryignored Right now, I flip through a few of them depending on what I'm feeling like at a given time.
Spellforge is particularly good because it gives you a very manipulatable magic system. It's pretty lightweight, so there's not a whole lot going on with adding complicated new mechanics. But when you just need a little extra sprinkling of magic, it's a solid choice.
https://rockpaperstory.itch.io/spellforge
(cont)
Darkest Delves is a really cruel add-on, if I'm going to be honest about it. Fun, but absolutely brutal.
Effectively, it gives you another resource to manage when you go off into the darkness, whether it be underground or at night, whatever terrible low-light situation you can find your way into. And it happens a lot in Ironsworn.
Essentially, you get to keep up with your torches or other light sources. And when things go black, things really get dark on every level. It's something that I only bring to play on an occasional basis because it may be just a little bit too spicy. Once in a while, it's exactly what you want, though.
If you're looking for something for Starforged, which will provide the same sort of crazy intensity, there's Darkest Derelicts, which adds oxygen and power concerns to your extravehicular activities.
And if you thought it was bad to be under 30 tons of stone when your torches started going out, it really sucks to be deep in the heart of a dead spaceship as your oxygen runs out.
https://jaderavens.itch.io/darkest-delves
(cont)
Of course, there is what might be my favorite Ironsworn third-party supplement. Ironsworn: Reign. It adds mechanics to do what quite a lot of RPGs fail to do at any compelling level, and that is to give you the ability to build up a community, to construct and maintain your own village or city or inn, to give you structure for building things up.
Of course, what you build up may not be as simple as all that. The mechanics cover maintaining a caravan as you travel from one place to another, or a nomadic people, or pulling together and managing your army on the march with the intention to go kill some people real good.
While it doesn't immediately jump out at people as something critical that they need in their life, I find it absolutely peerless for some of the things I want to do in-game.
You'll never be able to build your own Death Star unless you can handle the management. Just saying.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/419256/ironsworn-reign
(cont)
As the camper, I absolutely have to strongly recommend Arcanum: High Magic for Ironsworn. No question, no hesitation, absolutely throw that into the pile of things that you own.
I'll put the reason to you this way. Did you like Ars Magica? Did you like Ars Magica but wish that it was connected to a more solid, less fiddly, more personalizable set of mechanics, which you could play solo, co-op, or guided without any problems at all, yet keeping much of the architecture of the magic system with the split between verbs and nouns? If you did, go pick up Arcanum.
There is a bit of Reign in here, in that you are expected to build, expand, and manage your particular Arcanum ("Covenant" for those more familiar with AM).
Draw people in to live there who might be useful or helpful. Expand your magical tools. The whole nine yards of what you would expect from Mythic Europe.
(cont)
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/368750/arcanum-high-magic-for-ironsworn
@auguryignored I keep meaning to do a public play of Ironsworn with all the bells and whistles to be Ars Magica, but I just haven't got around to doing it all yet.
With Expanded Fifth Edition coming out soon, I can definitely see me having that on the table, using it for setting material and Ironsworn with Arcanum as the core mechanics that I play with, even with other people.
If you're feeling really perky, break out Starforged and use it with that, and you can play Mage the Awakening. In space, if you're so inclined. Good times.
Augury Ignored
LexTenebris
